Krivoklát Castle © Ricky Yates
About 50 kilometres west of Prague, in the beautiful wooded valley of the Berounka River, lies the village of Krivoklát with its historic 12th century castle. Whilst it is slightly further away from Prague and somewhat less accessible than the much better-known Karlštejn Castle, I was still surprised at the relatively small number of other visitors there were when we visited on Thursday 19th July.
The original castle was completed in 1109, just over 900 years ago. As with so many castles, over the following centuries it has been altered, extended and re-built after being badly damaged by fire. Once through the main gate, there is a large courtyard surrounded by buildings of different architectural styles. These house various artistic exhibitions and shops as well as providing some residential accommodation, presumably for staff who help maintain and run the castle today.
The courtyard inside Krivoklát Castle © Ricky Yates
The well inside the courtyard of Krivoklát Castle © Ricky Yates
In the centre of the courtyard is the well which in times past, would have been the only source of water for the castle residents.
Sundial on one of the courtyard walls © Ricky Yates
On one of the walls within the courtyard is the inevitable sundial 🙂
The view from the top of Krivoklát Castle tower © Ricky Yates
It is possible to explore the castle ramparts and then climb to the top of the round tower for this spectacular view down to the village in the valley below and across the nearby countryside. The beautiful forested area surrounding the village is designated as the Krivoklátsko Protected Landscape Region – a UNESCO ‘biosphere preservation’ area.
This was a most enjoyable day trip to a place and surrounding area which was completely new to us. There is so much more to tempt us to return in the not too distant future.
The main entrance and exit of Krivoklát Castle giving an indication of the thickness of the walls 🙂 © Ricky Yates
Hi Ricky,
This is a great place. I hope you can visit it in the fall when the leaves change and in winter snow too. It is beautiful in all seasons. Nearby the castle, there is a restaurant Jelen that offers great game food.
Hi Katarina – It is a great place! And I agree with you that the same places are well worth visiting in different seasons.
What a picturesque building, Ricky. I almost expected to see Rapunzel looking out of the window in the round, white tower. 🙂 The view is fantastic and as always your photos are a pleasure to see.
I know what you mean Perpetua – the main tower does look as though it has come straight out of an illustrated book of fairy tales. Glad you enjoyed the photos.
Beautiful post!
Glad you enjoyed it Karen!
Hi Ricky,
What lovely pictures!
As usual, reading your post prompted me to do a little research. The castle was used as a particularly nasty prison in the middle ages and was where the Protestant bishop Jan Augusta was incarcerated for sixteen years.
There is a brief account of his life and of his imprisonment in the castle in the Czech version of Wikipedia at http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Augusta
My translation programme makes for an interesting version of the page that most definitely would not pass your grammar test!
Hi Peter – Glad you enjoyed the pictures. Yes, the castle does have an interesting history. Thank you for the link regarding Bishop Jan Augusta. Indeed, I think that either ‘Google translate’ or ‘Bing’ are the source of many of the examples of Czenglish that I regularly highlight on this blog. But equally they are useful tools to get the gist of what a Czech website is saying.